WW2 People

|   9 June 2010

The scary lady from SMERSH

Zinaida Pytkina – the scariest woman I ever met I’ve just added the testimony of Zinaida Pytkina to the site – do listen to it if you can. Because she was one of the most extraordinary human beings I ever met – she was certainly the most terrifying woman, and bear in mind she was […]

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WW2 Competitions

|   4 June 2010

Man in the photo

Yes, Frederick (see his comment below) is absolutely right. The man on the right of Hitler is Arno Breker, Hitler’s favourite sculptor, who accompanied Speer and the Fuehrer on their lightening, three hour early morning tour of Paris, 70 years ago this month. Hitler wanted these ‘artists’ to accompany him so that they could see […]

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WW2 Competitions

|   1 June 2010

Competition Result – May

Here is the result of the May WW2History.com members’ competition. The question was – who is the Nazi on the left of this picture, accompanying Adolf Hitler on his victorious tour of France 70 years ago this month? I thought it was a tough question since the Nazi concerned doesn’t actually quite look his normal […]

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WW2 Anniversary

|   25 May 2010

Churchill’s lucky break

In May 1940 Churchill’s government got lucky. Seventy years ago today, something quite extraordinary happened. Or rather, to be more precise, something quite extraordinary didn’t happen. German tanks, which were in position to advance on the British Expeditionary Force which had retreated to the channel port of Dunkirk, did not move forward to crush the […]

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WW2 Relevance

|   18 May 2010

How do revolutions start?

Bangkok – serene no more The desperate events that are happening now in Bangkok fill me with profound gloom. I have been in love with Thailand since I first visited the country twenty five years ago. My family and I go there on holiday whenever we can. In my experience the people are wonderful, the […]

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WW2 Relevance

|   7 May 2010

The Poles, Katyn and the recent plane crash.

The Polish flag flies at half mast at the Polish Centre, West London Someone once asked me a really unexpected question: of all the sites of death and destruction that I had ever visited, which did I think still felt the saddest today? It wasn’t a question I’d ever considered before – despite having traveled […]

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WW2 Relevance

|   3 May 2010

Athens: a warning?

This is Athens as we want it to be. This is the new reality Over the years I’ve met a large number of people who lived through the extraordinary transformation in the fortunes of the Nazi party between 1928 and 1933. In the elections of 1928 the Nazis gained less than 3% of the vote […]

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WW2 Controversies

|   3 May 2010

Why do so many people want to think Hitler was mad?

In Quentin Tarantino’s recent film ‘Inglourious Basterds’ Hitler was portrayed as an absolute weirdo. This Hitler screams at his Generals, bangs his fist on the table and suggests that Brad Pitt’s team of commandos might be ghostly apparitions. If not certifiably mad, the Hitler of ‘Inglourious Basterds’ certainly has more than several screws loose. Tarantino’s […]

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